Controversial bilingual-education classes will be preserved under Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to help immigrants learn to speak English.

The mayor’s plan pumps $20 million in additional funding for a range of “English-Language Learner” (ELL) programs, mostly to train new teachers and align these programs with the new uniform curriculum.

But the mayor and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein didn’t touch the bilingual-education program in which students are taught mostly in their native language, not English.

Critics have long complained bilingual education has been a crutch that hinders students from quickly learning English.

Bloomberg defended the decision.

“There is no ‘one size fits all’

. That’s one of the problems. If there were easy answers, people would have solved this a long time ago,” the mayor said.

Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning Diana Lam, a Peruvian fluent in Spanish and English, stressed she is a product of bilingual education and said, “I know students can compute, speak and learn in two languages.”

But critics complained Bloomberg and Klein merely tinkered with ELL instruction when radical surgery was necessary.

“This is not a plan. This is a press release,” said City Council Education Committee Chairwoman Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan).